The Boogie Man Will Get You 1942 Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre
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In this rare “psychotronic” film (a film genre comprised of science fiction, fantasy and horror) Winnie Slade, a young divorcee, buys an old historic house from nutty Professor Billings, who lives there with his daffy housekeeper and bizarre neighbors, in order to convert it into a hotel. She allows them to continue to live on the property – unaware that the Professor continues to experiment unsuccessfully on traveling salesmen, the bodies of whom have filled the cellar. They are joined by a variety of eccentric characters including a quack doctor, who doubles as the town’s sheriff,
Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre attempt to make superhuman zombies for the war effort.
Winnie’s frenetic ex-husband, an oddball choreographer, a punch-drunk traveling salesman, and a lunatic escapee from the Italian army.
Though conceived as a quickie ripoff of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Boogie Man” now seems more like a weird precursor of “Green Acres,” featuring (Miss) Jeff Donnell as a sort of young female Eddie Albert, and Boris Karloff in what might be called the Eva Gabor position, spoofing his kindly old mad scientist roles as a semi-senile inventor attempting to create a race of electrically enhanced supermen in the basement of a crumbling colonial inn while Miss Donnell joyously appraises all the charming old antiques upstairs.
Peter Lorre, of all people, gives a rare comic performance as the local version of Mr. Haney, running around dressed like Robert Mitchum in “Night of the Hunter,” with a cute little Siamese kitten in his pocket that he periodically coos to in German. This is the sort of movie you used to catch one night on the late late show, and wonder for years afterwards if you’d actually seen it or just dreamt it.
While the film fails to offer any actual “Boogieman”, it does offer up a variety of decent chuckles, courtesy of its then all-star cast. With a goofy set up, likable characters, and some great slapstick, The Boogie Man Will Get You is a decent, fun little romp from yesteryear.
Revealing mistake:
Jeff Donnell’s Winnie slips and calls Peter Lorre “Professor Lorre”, not Lorenz, and it remains in the film.
Quotes:
Dr. Lorenz: “Do you imagine I could take advantage, exploit, capitalize on a great scientific discovery? Cheat millions of people all the world over? Profane my profession? Suppose I make a few dollars, don’t you think I wouldn’t put it right back into science?”
Winnie Slade: [Referring to Professor Billings] “Isn’t he a dear?”
Amelia Jones: “Even when he was a baby, he never cried – not even when we dropped him.”
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